


The Second Month on The Twelfth Day

by belivaird_st



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: F/F, Family Bonding, Older Woman/Younger Woman, Strong Female Characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-12
Updated: 2020-02-12
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:28:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22683223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/belivaird_st/pseuds/belivaird_st
Summary: Carol and Therese go see Rindy’s school theater play on the life and death of Abraham Lincoln.
Relationships: Carol Aird/Therese Belivet
Kudos: 32





	The Second Month on The Twelfth Day

Carol sat down beside Therese in comfy theater seats with her daughter’s school production play sheet in her hands. Parents belonging to other students were talking in hushed tones amongst themselves in the dim-lit auditorium. Carol laid her coat on her lap to look over the sheet. It gave a small welcome introductory to families and friends. A casting list of who was playing whom. Carol held the round tip of her thumbnail under Rindy’s name, who was playing Mrs. Lincoln, Abraham’s mother. Grinning, she held the sheet over towards Therese, who peered down and saw through the dull lighting. 

“Her name’s in fine print. It’s so official,” Therese smirked.

“She worked so hard memorizing her lines,” Carol nodded.

The lights were fading out making the spacious room dark and exciting. The noise of chatter cut short to silence as soon as the stage lights switched onto a billowy curtain that skirted open to one side. The scenery showed a cardboard cutout of a wood log house and pig pen with a single stump that was splintered with an axe. A sixth grader wearing a bow tie and suspenders approached the stage with a microphone. He took a deep breath that echoed the built-in speakers and began to tell the life and death of Abraham Lincoln.

Carol and Therese watched Rindy come onstage in a white nightgown and bonnet with a toy baby in her arms. She told the audience how much she adored her son, Abe, and that she hoped a long, fulfilling life for him. You could see the baby was clearly fake with its rubber face and wide, painted blue eyes. Some people cooed along with the babyhood, while others chuckled, amusingly. The moment Rindy finished speaking, she carried baby Abe off stage with a new scene of the president as a kid with his father, chopping wood. Rindy played another scene where her character had fallen ill and died, leaving her children motherless. Watching Rindy cough dramatically before laying down, motionless, had disturbed Carol somewhat and made Therese squeeze her hand for emotional support. 

The play went on with Abe growing up into his marriage with Mary Todd, and then becoming a politician, who was selected later as the sixteenth president. Three kids played different ages of Lincoln. The last one, who was “adult” Abe was a tall kid with glasses, wearing a fake beard and tall hat.

The assassination scene was not easy to watch. The kid playing John Wilkes Booth had a toy gun that made a popping sound whenever the trigger was pulled. People gasped over the sight of the shiny toy gun snapping against the back of Abe’s head with somebody hiding behind Abe’s chair throwing up a fistful of red confetti. The boy playing Lincoln fell over with the girl playing Mary Todd, screaming in sheer terror. 

Everybody clapped and cheered once the curtain fell over the death scene with the kid as narrator, bowing his head. Therese glanced over to Carol, who was blotting her eyes with a crumpled tissue.

“You knew the ending, Carol,” she protest.

“It’s still hard to watch it,” Carol sighed, picking herself up to walk through the aisle. 

Rindy approached them in the lobby still in her costume and bonnet sliding over her light brown hair. She looked sweaty and done for the day, but still had a smile on her face. She came over to hug and reunite with her two mothers.

“Great job, honey,” Therese was telling her, kissing her on the cheek. “Mommy and I are so proud!”

“Did you see me coughing?” Rindy beamed underneath her hold. 

“You’re okay. It was only an act,” Carol convinced herself more than anyone else. She hugged her daughter when it was her turn and held her tight.


End file.
